“Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue. You can risk damage to your site and reputation”
Google

Hiring an Out of Area SEO Company

Search results are personalized. Factors like demographics, search history, browsing history affect your search results. People in different areas have different search results for the same search term and there is no way around that.

Not Respecting Google Webmasters Rules

Small Business SEO was never about tricking the search engines to rank a small business website higher. Most SEO solicitations are using techniques not approved by Google like Bulk Link Building, Spam Commenting, Keyword Stuffing. SEO shortcuts worked well over the years but since Panda and Penguin algorithm updates they just don’t, in fact they get you penalized.

Not Checking Previous SEO Results

Don’t get impressed by a SEO salesman promising you a lot of traffic and new business. SEO is not the same product you can buy from any SEO company, SEO is proven knowledge and experience. Again, here is what Google says:

“Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?”
Google

Not Checking Google Analytics

Keyword rankings are important but the number of website visits is extremely significant particularly when you are tracking SEO results. Many site owners will be surprised to find out that they don’t have much traffic from search engines even though their website looks great.